Orwell literally puts everything he has into his writing. He's usually the main character and the thoughts he ascribes that character are his. Orwell mentions dreams in most of his books and in his personal life he had nightmares. Maybe in part that's where 1984 came from.

In Orwell: The Authorized Biography, Michael Sheldon describes interviewing the woman who moved into Orwell's flat as the live-in babysitter after Orwell's wife died. She said that Orwell used to type until about four or five in the morning and the sound was so natural that if it stopped she'd wake up wondering what was wrong. One morning, while fixing breakfast, she heard him screaming in his sleep from a terrible nightmare and she ran into his room to wake him up. Orwell told her that he used to have nightmares like that when he lived in Burma and that his native servant used to tickle his feet with feathers to make them go away. So after that she sent toddler Richard in every morning to tickle his Dad's feet and wake him up before the nightmares started. Orwell used to like starting his day that way.

Orwell was obsessed with writing 1984 - which was nothing less than the culmination of everything he had learned and observed in his 47 years on the planet. There is no doubt that the writing of it destroyed his health completely. He never saw a healthy day from the moment he left Jura with the manuscript until he died five months after its publication. In his lifetime he had been on death's door more than once from pushing his body beyond what it could endure and no doubt his near-death experiences had given him insights that he was able to draw from in the writing of 1984.

One of the most important dreams Winston has is the one about his mother and his sister falling deeper into the well and extending their arms toward him to keep him above ground. He senses that they want him to stay alive because he has important work to do, and that in part is what drives him on. That's similar to Orwell telling us in Why I Write that he feels honour-bound to write in order to contribute to peace and freedom, when all around him he sees war and tyranny. ~ Jackie Jura

In Animal Farm I recognize Orwell speaking through Major. [Substitue words] have been put in brackets:

"... When Major [Orwell] saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began:

'Comrades, [Countrymen] you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades [countrymen], that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life [lived 46 years]. I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall [TB sanatorium], and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal [human being] now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.

'Now, comrades, [countrymen] what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty [get fatal diseases and die]. No animal [working man] in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old [gets his first job]. No animal [working man] in England is free. The life of an animal [working man] is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.

'But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades [countrymen], a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals [human beings] than now inhabit it. This single farm farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep — and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings [the Corporate Communist Elite]. There, comrades [countrymen], is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word [phrase] — Man [the Corporate Communist Elite]. Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

'Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk [milk cows], he does not lay [collect] eggs, he is too weak [lazy] to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits [hunt for meat]. Yet he is lord of all the animals [working men]. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung [blood] fertilizes it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows [working men] that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk [hours of work] have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk [money] which should have been breeding up sturdy calves [children]? Every drop [cent] of it has gone down the throats [into the banks] of our enemies. And you hens [women], how many eggs [ovulations] have you laid [had] in this last year, and how many of those eggs [ovulations] ever hatched into chickens [developed into children]? The rest have all gone to market [abortion clinics] to bring in money for Jones and his men [the Corporate Communist Elite]. And you, Clover, [woman] where are those four foals [children] you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold [institutionalized] at a year old — you will never see one of them again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields [the home], what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall [roof over your head]?

'And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old [46] and have had over four hundred children [written many books]. Such is the natural life of a pig [writer]. But no animal [working man] escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers [people] who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year [be worked to death]. To that horror we all must come — cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone [all working people]. Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, [working man] the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones [the Corporate Communist Elite] will sell you to the knacker [send you into retirement], who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds [deny you a pension and suck you dry]. As for the dogs, [animals] when they grow old and toothless, Jones [the Corporate Communist Elite] ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.

'Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades [countrymen], that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings [Corporate Communism]? Only get rid of Man [the Corporate Communist Elite], and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race [Corporate Communism]! That is my message to you, comrades [countrymen]: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw [land] beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades [countrymen], throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.

'And remember, comrades [countrymen], your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] and the animals [working men] have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals [working men] let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men [Corporate Communist Elites] are enemies. All animals [working men] are comrades [friends].'

...'I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs [the Corporate Communist Elite] is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, [working men] is a friend. And remember also that in fighting against Man [the Corporate Communist Elite], we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices... All the habits of Man [the Corporate Communist Elite] are evil. And, above all, no animal [working man] must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal [working man] must ever kill any other animal [human being]. All animals [human beings] are equal...'"